


Swear To Me

by The_Morregan



Series: The Vaguely Musical Shitshow [2]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Absurd love of AI and Weird Music, Almost Drowning, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pre-smut, Rob Thomas Lyrics inspired this whole thing, Romance, Steve Rogers's perfect body, Steve is a dork, Tony Needs a Hug, Tony has Bad Days, Tony is oblivious, no smut today, post-Avengers movie, pre-Civil War, pre-ultron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 12:51:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12748689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Morregan/pseuds/The_Morregan
Summary: WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN TO ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF A VAGUELY MUSICAL SHITSHOW! Tonight on Episode Two we have The Beginning! Will Tony die from gaping at Steve's body while underwater? Will Rob Thomas lyrics inspire a heartfelt confession of feelings? Will the Avengers as a whole stop being little shits to Tony?LET'S FIND OUT!





	Swear To Me

After The Battle of New York things took on a twelve-step downhill slide for Tony.

 

He tried shwarma. Shwarma didn’t work like he wanted it to, it stubbornly refused to be the comfort food-slash-magic PTSD Away Potion he needed it to be.

 

He went  _~~under duress from Pepper~~ _ willingly to therapy. That stopped pretty quickly because the  _~~quack~~ _ doctor was some Freudian disciple who kept trying to make him talk about his parents. 

 

He dove deep into his bots and suits, trying to create new ones, or make improvements on his older models.  The ones that didn’t implode seemed to actively thwart him at every turn.

  
He took time off to be with Pepper. Pepper had Stark Industries to run, and Tony couldn’t put up with an apartment that was usually empty except for some fucky memories and JARVIS.  

 

He ran more missions with the team. Then he remembered that the team didn’t really  _~~want~~ _ need him, and stepped back again. 

 

He popped some antidepressants, but they just made him sleepy and almost too emotionally numb to function.

 

He did yoga with Banner.

 

He shattered a four-foot-thick concrete wall like glass after a nightmare.

 

He broke it off with Pepper.

 

He drank.

 

He drank.

 

He drank.

* * *

 

  
  


At the bottom of a bottle of cheap whiskey, Tony Stark found two weeks missing from his memory. 

 

After that he decided to start small, just keep his hands full of tools, rather than bottles, for a while. He fixed a transmission issue in his Aston Martin. He picked up a VW van from the 70’s, a 1997 Chevy Suburban that used to fight bulls somewhere in Texas, and a Chrysler Sebring that had found itself on the wrong end of an eighteen wheeler. 

 

Tony kept himself mindless by completely refabricating the Suburban’s body and frame. Then, because the nightmares were getting worse, but hey, you’ve only got to deal with nightmares if you sleep, he refitted the engine. Then added a computer system, complete with it’s own unique AI. The AI named itself Urbie. 

 

“Alright then, Urbie. Cream or Cobalt?”

 

“ _ I’m sorry, sir?” _

 

“Body color, cream or cobalt?” Tony was testing how far he could push his new AI, seeing as Urbie fell somewhere between FRIDAY and DUM-E on the complexity scale. Closer to FRIDAY, but still.

 

_ “Cream, sir. Cobalt accents, if you don’t mind.” _

 

Before Tony could do anything but roll his eyes slightly at the teenagery sound of Urbie’s voice, cracking and unsure, someone coughed behind him. 

 

Repulsors that wrapped themselves around Tony’s hands without real thought ignited as he aimed at the intruder. 

 

“Hey! Hey, Tony,  _ whoa. _ ” 

 

Tony could have screamed. Of all the people to come and bug him while he was being reclusive it had to be  _ this  _ spangly asshat, “Oh, hi Capsicle. Didn’t hear you knock.”

 

Deceptively blue eyes reached Tony’s, Steve’s hands were still halfway in the air, and a smirk twisted the corner of his mouth, “That’s because I didn’t.”

 

“Ah. JARVIS?”

 

_ “Yes, sir?” _

 

“Why was I not informed that someone had gotten onto my floor?” Tony hoped, if only for the sake of his snarky AI, that JARVIS had been hacked or some such ridiculous thing because otherwise Tony was going to rewrite him and make him sound like Donald goddamn Duck.

 

“ _ Captain Rogers was determined, by your numerous scanning systems, not to be a danger to your safety. After an eyescan his identity was confirmed and he was given the access to the Tower you established for each Avenger.” _

 

Right. Right. Clearance, living spaces, other humans blah blah blah, “Next time  _ warn  _ me, J.  I don’t want to turn our darling Cap into a smear of goo.”

 

_ “Yes, sir.” _

 

Tony let his arms relax, and flicked the repulsors back onto the suit where they belonged, “Get Urbie to DUM-E and U for his paint job, I’m probably going to be busy for a while.”

 

“What makes you so sure, Stark?” The captain seemed genuinely curious, probably forgetting  _~~due to his golden retriever-style greymatter~~ _ that he and Widow only called Tony in when there was advanced tech or more bodies than they wanted to throw themselves at.

 

Tony reminded him of this, and Cap’s face went all confused and hurt. Stupid big puppy eyes, “You’re a valued member-”

 

“Don’t give me the ‘valued team member’ line. Genius, remember?” Tony tapped his temple and turned around to start tinkering with Urbie’s headlights. “What did you need?”

 

“I… I honestly just wanted to talk, St-Tony.”

 

This could only end badly.Tony stiffened and his hands stilled over the plastic casing in his hand, “Why?”

 

“Because you’ve been holed up in here for almost three weeks, not answering any calls and barely leaving. Figured you could use a human around for a minute.” 

 

Not that Tony was watching over his shoulder and through his eyelashes or anything, but Cap’s arms were crossed over his chest, and he was absently scuffing his boots on the floor like some embarrassed little kid asking the cute girl if she’d like to swing with him at recess. It was kind of  ~~_adorable_ **irritating**~~ gratifying to see America’s Hero scuffing and almost blushing in his presence. “If it’s unwelcome, I can-”

 

“Oh, just sit down,” Tony did his damned not to chuckle out loud at the look of relief and excitement that settled on Cap’s face when he parked himself on Tony’s workbench. “Since you’re here I may as well check the Super Frisbee over, see if you’ll let me make any improvements.”

 

“Not likely St- _ Tony. _ ”

* * *

 

  
  


And that’s how Steven Grant Rogers, man out of time, wormed his way into Tony’s shop and his life in general. He’d bring Chinese food, and coffee, and sit on Tony’s bench, blathering on about  _ stuff.  _ (Tony didn’t bother tuning in about half the time.) Slowly, Cap became  _ Steve,  _ and Steve became less of a nuisance, contractually obligated  _~~not really~~ _ to make sure Tony wasn’t dead, and more of a friend.

Most unfortunately for Tony, Steve was tactile as hell. He’d come up from one side and casually put his arm over Tony’s shoulder, quietly watching as Tony finished Urbie and began to rebuild CeeBee (the Chrysler) from the ground up.

 

His fingers would brush Tony’s  when handing over precious nourishment and caffeine. Tools would magically appear with a small touch to Tony’s elbow when he asked for them.  Just the teeniest, eensiest things that drove Tony’s inner touch-starved child  _ insane.  _

 

Adultish Tony only started to take real notice of Steve when he memorized Tony’s usual order at their Chinese place, and which bakery made the best chocolate-raspberry cupcakes for the Bad Days™. Adultish Tony took  _ note  _ because of the food, but took  _ interest  _ because of one hot summer day when Steve had coaxed him out of his shop to go swimming in the pool on the patio. 

  
  


“.....Steve, what are you doing?” 

 

Oh Holy Mary, Mother Of  _ God.  _ Jesus Christ and all the saints. 

 

“Steve, I need you to put pants back on.”  ~~_ Please, please, please don’t  _ **_ever_ ** _ put pants back on. _ ~~

 

Steve merely smirked and ignored him. 

 

They had played in the pool that day like a pair of teenagers, splashing back and forth, dunking each other, and (most memorably for Tony) practicing not-sexy mouth-to-mouth. _ See context below. _

 

Tony had drifted away from Steve, trying to catch his breath from laughing at Steve’s absolute fascination with pool noodles and let himself sink until only his eyes were above the waterline. He watched Steve paddle around with a giant grin on his face and four noodles under his arms, until JARVIS announced a call for the captain coming through from SHIELD. Steve’s smile slipped from his face, and Tony saw The Captain mask slip over his features as he clambered out of the pool. Now, most of the Avengers had seen each other in one level or another of undress at  _ some  _ point, and Tony had already been blessed with an eyeful of Steve’s luscious pecs, rippling abs and beautiful calves, but there was something about the way the sunlight hit droplets that cascaded off of his  _ ridiculously perfect  _ body. Like tiny diamonds caught on the surface of his skin and the tips of his hair and the curve of his lower lip when he sighed. 

 

Even from a mostly-backside-kinda-sideways view Tony was mesmerized. Braced on the edge of the pool, holding his weight, the muscles in Steve’s arms were sharply defined and at odds with the bright sunlight soaking into his back and shoulders. Most people would not look overly hot with water dripping off their nose, or with hair rumpled and wearing baggy swim trunks. Captain America was not most people.

 

Tony had about two seconds to wonder why he was  _ seeing in black and white and lens flares  _ before he remembered that breathing was a thing he should probably do. Of course sucking in a mouthful of water was counterproductive to that, which meant Tony not only sucked in a mouthful, but a  _ lungful.  _ And then panicked. 

 

And sucked more water in.

 

And saw black and white again.

 

And panicked a little more.

 

And then his vision went blurry blue.

 

And then he blacked out.

* * *

 

 

When Tony gasped himself back to consciousness he noticed two things: one, somebody had been tap-dancing on his chest and  _ fuck that hurts.  _ Two, Steve’s lips were about two centimeters from his. He could taste the leftover toothpaste on Steve’s tongue, and felt every breath across the lower half of his face. Blue eyes looked worriedly down at him, and he felt the unfamiliar weight of a hand on his chest, and fingers tangled in his hair.

 

“....ny? Tony are you alright?”

 

“Did you kiss me?”

 

Blue eyes went from worried to confused, “What?”

 

“Did we kiss?” One would not have thought this was such a perplexing question, but it was Steve, soooo. Tony begrudgingly admonished the voice,  _ You and I both know the guy’s actually really smart. _

 

“No? I mean I gave you mouth-to-mouth because you were  _ drowning,  _ but I wouldn’t call it a kiss.” There was a chuckle lurking somewhere in that sentence, but Tony couldn’t find it. 

 

“Oh good. I’d hate for our first kiss to be when I was half-dead.”

 

Steve smiled, “And when would our first kiss be, ideally?”

 

Tony knew he was rambling, but his brain was still at about fifty percent so nobody in the Peanut Gallery gave a shit, “Preferably half an hour ago when I first saw you wade into the water like that one chick from  _ Atlantis _ , have you watched that movie? Or, like, at midnight? With the moon and the stars behind us. Some romantic shit like that.”

 

Steve, who had never stopped smiling, the perfect-teeth-having bastard, just hummed.

 

“Or now. Now would work.”

 

“Oh, really? What makes you think I enjoy the company of men?” Steve raised an eyebrow, smile still never leaving his face.

 

Tony laughed outright, “Did I ever tell you about this one time my dad got drunk and started telling stories from your guys’ day? He told me that you and Sergeant Barnes  used to…. Now how did he put it? Oh, yes. You and Barnes used to  _ fondue. _ ”

 

And all of a sudden it looked like Steve at shoved his face into an oven, or stuck Christmas lights under his skin. His blush, a beautiful, very Irish, bright red crept up his forehead and down his neck to the tops of his (very deliciously) bare shoulders, “I didn’t know Howard was familiar with that term.”

 

“ _ Very  _ familiar.” Tony watched carefully for the flicker of pain and longing that would sit in Steve’s eyes like a hobo on a sidewalk, and it came, just as he knew it would. “Also I’ve caught you staring at my ass on more than one occasion. No worries though, I’ve returned the favor.”

 

Tony propped himself up on his elbows, and managed to chuckle. Steve was still blushing, but a shadow of his smile had returned and he was shaking his head, “Alright Tony.”

 

_ Huh?  _ “Alright...What?”

 

“Alright, I’ll admit to looking you over.”

 

Tony scoffed, “Well that was boring. I didn’t need you to admit to  _ that,  _ I knew. That’s like admitting there’s gravity. Duh.”

 

“What did you need then?”

 

_ I need you to kiss me. I need you to sweep me into your arms like some blushing dame and carry me to bed. I need you to keep making the Bad Days™ go away. I need your little touches to become tight hugs.  _ Absolutely NONE of that was going to come out of Tony’s mouth, so help him god, but what did was almost as bad, “I need you to show me something. Words are only words, after all.”

 

“You’re paraphrasing Rob Thomas now? Isn’t that a little….. Cliche?” It was only when he twitched that he noticed Steve’s fingers had never left his hair. Odd.

 

Tony shrugged, “You weren’t supposed to recognize it, but yeah.”

 

“Tony, you realize that you’ve been playing that album nonstop since I showed up here, right? I probably know those songs better than you do.”

 

Had he really? Huh. By Tony’s estimation Steve had been spending more time with him for about the last monthish, so…… Wow. “Um, alright then.”

 

“To be honest with you, Tony, I don’t want to be lonely anymore,” Steve said. 

 

Tony could roll with this, song lyrics were easy, and potentially more sincere than anything else that might tumble out of his mouth, “I don’t want to have to pay for this later. If you’re going to tell me that you want me, you’d better know for sure.”

 

“I don’t want another lover, it would be just another heartache.” 

 

Tony laughed, loving the way Steve’s eyebrows squinched as he tried to remember the lyrics and then paraphrase them accurately. “Alright, alright. Enough or we’re going to ruin the mood for ourselves. Honestly though, are you serious?”

 

“I don’t want to be lonely anymore, and I mean that.” Steve looked surprisingly serious for a man who just admitted to wanting to sleep with Tony. Tony was okay with that though. Steve’s serious face brought some very filthy images to mind. 

 

“Okay.” And Tony kissed him. A simple, chaste-for-Tony, quick kiss. He was wrapped into a pair of tanned arms, and he let himself slip into the genuine easy pleasure of existing in the presence of another human.

* * *

 

  
  


Tony would brazenly admit later to lying about how much of the mouth-to-mouth action he had gotten that day was unsexy. The stupid story of their real first kiss would be buried among other little things that would “taint” the idea that Iron Man and Captain America were anything less than gods, especially in bed. They didn’t mention the Grape Incident, or how the crack running the length of Tony’s favorite bookshelf happened, or any other of the minor, humanizing elements of their romance. 

 

They would be gods to the public, and utter dorks who sang Rob Thomas lyrics to each other in private.

**Author's Note:**

> Did anybody catch the RDJ Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows reference? It was blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but it's there.   
> Also, just to be very clear, I don't own any of this. Not the Lyrics, not the MCU, not the boys. Title and some dialogue today came from (you guessed it!) Rob Thomas's song "Lonely No More"
> 
> Let me know what you think!


End file.
